Because of their size difference, you cannot use a 3 ‘/z-inch diskette in a 5 ‘/.+-inch drive or vice versa. If you have both types of drives, however, you can copy individual files or groups of files from one drive to the other with the COPY and XCOPY commands. See Chapter 3 or your MS-DOS manuals for information about the COPY and XCOPY commands.

You need to format new diskettes before you can use them. Formatting prepares a diskette to receive data. Formatting also erases any data previously stored on a diskette, so be sure to format only new blank diskettes or diskettes that contain data you want to erase. See Chapter 3 for information about formatting diskettes.

Note

You must format double-sided, double-density, 3 l/z-mch diskettes to store 720KB of data, if you are using double+ sided, high-density, 3 l/&nch diskettes, you must format them to store 1.44MB of data.

Caring for Diskettes

The 3 ‘/z-inch diskettes are sturdy and reliable, but are not indestructible. To avoid damaging your diskettes and losing data, take these precautions:

Ci Do not remove a diskette or turn off the computer while the diskette drive icon is on. This icon indicates that the computer is copying data to or from a diskette. If you interrupt this process, you may destroy data.

0 Remove all diskettes before you turn off the computer.

Cl Keep diskettes away from dust and dirt. Small particles of dust or dirt can scratch the magnetic surface and destroy data. Dust can also ruin the read/write heads in a diskette drive.

Using the Equity LT-286e2-19